Cuba vaccinates kids young as 2 to reopen schools

Sep 20 2021

Cuba became the first country in the world this September to start vaccinating kids as young as the age of 2 against the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the vaccination not being mandatory, parents have been filling clinics, hospitals and even converted schools along with their children just for their kids to get the jab. CNN and other media houses were invited to film in a policlinic in Havana where during a single day around 230 children between the ages of 3 to 5 received their vaccine.

To ease the pressure off the children, doctors and nurses wore Mickey Mouse ears even brought a clown with a speaker system to perform for them as they awaited in line. In Cuba, kids will require three shots before they are considered fully vaccinated, just like their adult counterparts. The arrival of the Delta variant led to a skyrocketing in infections among children in Cuba, with many of the patients reporting in serious or critical condition being newborns.

During the whole pandemic, at least 117,500 minors have been diagnosed with COVID in Cuba. The government has not revealed how many children have died with the virus, but singe the beginning of August, at least 10 minors have been listed as having died in daily press briefings given by the Health Ministry. Plans to reopen schools have thus been scrapped. Despite the closure of schools, internet access is an expensive luxury for most Cubans. Children therefore receive their lessons by watching educational channels on TV.

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Hamrun Spartans continue bad start by losing to Balzan

Sep 20 2021

Yesterday, Balzan narrowly beat Hamrun Spartans 1-0 to cause even more misery to the latter tean following their bad start. The Spartans look a shadow of the team that convincingly won the league last season. Many fans and pundits alike have said that this bad patch of form might be because of the injury of creative midfielder Matthew Guillaumier.

The game wasn’t as close as the score line shows, as Balzan played better football and sometimes swept the Spartans off their feet. The first and only goal came from Balzan’s main man Milan Đurić. The Serbian midfielder scored past Henry Bonello from a free kick with the help of the post. A chance created by new signing Luke Gambin was wasted by a wide Frankiln Sasere header.

The second half didn’t feature any goals but was closer than the first. Hamrun wing back Joseph Mbong created the first chance of the second half, again for Franklin Sasere, but was saved, unfortunately for him. The beginning of the half was better but they quickly went back to their sloppy style, passing the ball around with no intent of creating any chances.

Balzan didn’t manage to convert any of their other chances but still got the all important three points which were required to take them to 6th and level on points with Floriana and Valletta.

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Maltese version of business TV show Shark Tank coming next year!

Sep 20 2021

Attention all entrepreneurs! Malta is getting its own version of Shark Tank, a hit business reality show which gives aspiring starting entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their dreams in front of a panel of super investors. The program was confirmed by TVM, stating that the exciting show will be airing in April of next year on Sundays at 2pm. This means it will be airing shortly after the third season of X Factor Malta comes to an end.

The Shark Tank format involves entrepreneurs proposing business ideas to a panel of investors, aptly titled the Sharks. These investors can make the dreams of these aspirants become a reality should they decide to invest in their business venture. The Sharks will be on the hunt for interesting business deals which will get them a return on their investment. The show started in the USa and included several business moguls taking on the judging panel. The Maltese sharks are as of yet unknown, but this should give some time for all those aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to come up with something big… this could be their future!

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COVID-19: the search for the origin continues

Sep 20 2021

The origin story for the COVID-19 pandemic is currently one filled with a lack of hard evidence or data, with scientists still searching for how the outbreak occurred. The world is currently approaching a two year mark since the novel coronavirus was detected. There are currently two prevailing theories into how SARS-CoV-2 came to be. The first, called the zoonotic hypothesis, states that the virus spilled over from animals to humans, either directly through a bat or some other intermediary animal. Scientists say that this is the likely origin as 75% of emerging diseases have all done this before. There is still however the theory that the virus leaked from a laboratory.

Throughout much of 2021, the lab leak theory gained momentum. Former director of the US CDC Dr. Robert Redfield told Gupta that he thinks COVID-19 originated from a Wuhan lab in China. The World Health Organization (WHO) released the origins report on March 30th of this year, stating that the previous zoonotic theory was probably correct. Criticism, of course, came pouring in. Many stated that WHO looked really hard at the spillover theory but didn’t really analyze the lab leak hypothesis. The Chinese deny any possibility of any Wuhan lab leaking the virus, but the world is still calling for answers in order to prevent such outbreaks in the future.